Teams Look To Rebound In State After Tough Losses!

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL: Monroe only team among local state entries to capture division title.

Several area girls’ basketball teams find themselves on the rebound entering the opening round of the state playoffs.

Six of the seven local qualifiers – City Section Div. III champion Monroe being the exception – enter the Southern California regionals Tuesday coming off a loss in their section final or semifinals, looking to avoid back-to-back setbacks to conclude their season.

Canyon in Div. II, along with Bell-Jeff and Chaminade in Div. III, have endured the longest layoffs since suffering semifinal defeats Feb. 26.

But Chaminade coach Kelli DiMuro, whose team was one of six in contention for the four remaining regional berths following a 58-56 loss to Bishop Montgomery in the Div. IV-AA semifinals, knows the Eagles (25-4) will be highly motivated.

“We’ve forgotten about Bishop Montgomery. The past week has been good for us to be able to move past that, to go back and watch film and learn from our mistakes,” Dimuro said.

“I swear we’re a better team than we were against Bishop Montgomery, but the time off has allowed us to fix the things that went wrong in that game.”

Despite losing to Orange Lutheran 43-40 in the Div. III-A semifinals, Bell-Jeff (22-7) was seeded fifth in the 14-team regional and plays host to City Div. III runner-up Reseda (19-8), which suffered a 66-27 loss Saturday to Monroe at Roybal Learning Center.

Canyon (26-5), which fell 60-53 to Buena in the Southern Section Div. II-AA semifinals, will also look to regroup when it travels to Monache of Porterville (23-3), the Central Section Div. II champion following a 58-51 victory Friday over Yosemite of Oakhurst.

Harvard-Westlake (24-9), which fell short of winning a third consecutive title Thursday with a 66-45 loss to Anaheim Canyon in the Div. II-A final, received the No. 4 seed in the 14-team regional and plays host to Yosemite (16-12).

Oaks Christian (24-8), which suffered a 53-44 loss Friday to St. Anthony in the Div. IV-A final, will play host to Duarte (25-2), with the winner traveling Thursday to second-seeded Windward (26-4).

Monroe (23-8), which captured its first City championship in program history, was seeded sixth in Div. III and plays host to Sonora (21-9), which lost to St. Joseph/Santa Maria in the Div.III-AA semifinals.

After losing to Birmingham in last year’s Div.III final, Monroe fell to top-seeded Santa Margarita in its regional opener.

The Vikings, who have won 15 in a row, have a much better opportunity to advance this season, since Sonora was the last of the eight Southern Section teams included in the regional.